Dib had every intention of dropping Clark off in the dorm and sneaking back out to see Zim ( Irkens didn't sleep-at least that was Dib's assumption- so it was not like he would be interrupting anything). Though, as it turned out, humans (even clones) really did need to rest after something so draining. Dib and Clark went into their separate rooms and Dib had flopped on the bed, taking a moment to listen out for the sounds of his roommate going to sleep so he could slip out unnoticed .
The next thing he knew it was mid-afternoon the next day. He had actually missed one of his own classes already, but that was nothing new. Dib had high enough grades that his professors didn't really care if he showed up so long as he took the tests. Checking the clock, Dib realized Clark was probably in lab right now, meaning he was free to slip out to visit his alien informant without having to explain himself to another human.
Dib rolled out of bed, struggling to find clean clothes. His outfit from the night before had been covered in soot and ash, torn and burned beyond salvaging. It was a good thing he owned another trench coat or that might have really been bad. He tossed the clothes and found something that he was pretty sure was clean before poking his head out into the main living area to make sure he was alone. He was. It looked like Clark had left in a bit of a hurry too as the kitchen still had the makings of lunch scattered over the counter. Dib made himself a quick cup of coffee to fill his thermos before he hurried out of the door and back into his car.
His phone had died at some point during the night, so Dib had to charge it while he was driving over to Zim's lair. It had been several years, but the Irken had never thought to update his yard or house, despite knowing that it wasn't a very convincing disguise. Still, after all this time, there was a certain charm to it. Dib parked beside the curb and headed along the path toward the little bathroom door. He could see the gnomes and blowfish slowly turn to watch him as he drew closer to the entrance. He raised his hand to knock , but the door swung open on its own.
" I thought you were dead. " The holographic form of CB greeted him in the living room. Zim , Skoodge , and GIR were nowhere to be seen.
"Dead? Why would I be dead?" The door slammed shut behind Dib. "Are you mistaking ' thought ' for 'wished ' or something?" Dib was only half joking but CB didn't seem to understand the humor as the head tilted to the side again.
" I do not think so. But perhaps I am ."
"Where is your master anyway? I need to talk to him about this thing I found last night. I don't know if he got the photo I sent-"
" Oh yes. The intel was received. When further attempts at communication failed, we assumed you were dead and we began planning in the war room. "
"War room- wait! Zim thinks I'm dead!?"
" Are you? "
"Fucking seriously?" Dib gave him an exasperated look.
" You raise an excellent point. Very well follow me. " It was odd to see CB walking in front of him considering he wasn't physically there. His feet didn't really touch the ground and at one point he gave up faking the steps entirely and was satisfied by simply floating in front of Dib as he took him down the elevator to the laboratory where Zim and Skoodge were working.
Well... Zim was working. Skoodge was reading an Irken newspaper and showing Zim one of the articles. GIR was the only one who noticed Dib come in and let out a delighted squeal. " You stopped bein ' exploded !" He ran to Dib hugging tightly to his legs. Zim looked up, something that may have been relief briefly crossed his face before he went back to looking at the article.
"Yes well, it is obvious. If the all mighty Zim could not defeat this human worm baby then there is no way that the Galactic Syndicate would stand a chance!" Zim sounded rather confident, not even bothering to kick Dib out of his lab.
"Humans are actually quite adaptive and durable when under great duress." Skoodge remarked. "I've been studying them." Dib wasn't so sure he liked the sound of that. "It's amazing how much you have recovered after nearly being wiped out."
"How in the fuck do you know about that?" The incident in question had been before Dib's time and if Zim had known about it he sure as hell had not mentioned it. Skoodge had been on this planet for what was less than forty-eight hours and he had pulled up some rather sensitive information. Was this what the Invaders were actually supposed to be?
"I went through some of your government's files. Don't be so off put. I'm not trying to invade; I'm just trying to figure out why the Galactic Syndicate would be interested in a planet like Earth. No offense to your species, but you are a bit too primitive to meet Syndicate standards." Skoodge seemed to be a lot more well-put-together than Zim. Dib was starting to like the idea of him hanging around less and less the more he spoke.
"In what way is that not offensive?"
"I said 'no offense' before it."
"He's got a point." Zim piped up.
"Don't agree with him!" Dib shot back defensively. (Maybe he didn't like the idea of Skoodge because it gave the Irkens a way to team up against him). "What is this 'Galactic Syndicate' anyway? I have never heard you mention them once."
"The Galactic Syndicate are..." Skoodge trailed off looking for the right words.
"Scum!" Zim interjected helpfully.
"Well... maybe. That is probably a matter of opinion. Currently they are in a tentative treaty with the Irken Empire. We do not share our weapons or intel with them, but we also are not targeting their planets in Operation Impending Doom II. But Earth isn't a Syndicate planet, nor does it have all the qualifications to garner their interest. So, the fact that you found their drone is a bit alarming. Especially with Zim and I being Invaders, if this was a Syndicate planet, we could be seen as a threat and our fragile treaty would be devastated."
"Not that we couldn't win." Zim grumbled.
"The symbol on the ship was for this Galactic Syndicate?" Dib perked up. He would have to plow through Tak's ship for information on them later. This was something well worth investigating. Despite having been insulted, this trip was becoming quite lucrative for him after all. Could it be that a closer alien threat had set its eyes upon his planet? "What would they want with Earth?"
"Nothing, from what I could figure." Zim sounded annoyed.
" Maybe they want to steal all our cows and use them as their new subjects so that they can become the Milk King ." GIR suggested, still clinging to Dib's leg. " And we'll never have burgers again ." He was promptly ignored.
"Well I did get a recording from some blue alien hologram on the ship." Dib pulled out his still-nearly-dead phone. Zim immediately jumped on the lab table, pushing Skoodge aside. "I couldn't understand what it was saying but-"
"Why did you not mention this when you sent the picture!?" Zim demanded, holding Dib by the collar, only able to reach because he was standing on the table, and, even then, he still needed to use his PAK legs for the extra elevation.
"Because it was a very large file and I was planning to come over much sooner. But I don't have a lot of battery left-"
"CB! Display the file for your Master! Take it from the earth-boy's recording device!" Zim pointed to the hologram who again (despite not having much of his face visible) managed to look rather annoyed by the request.
"Most advanced AI on this pathetic planet and I'm being used as a video projector and glorified charger ." CB grumbled as a metal arm descended from the ceiling, picking up Dib's phone from his hand. A spark of electricity from the house sent the battery to 100% in a matter of seconds. " I was not made for such menial tasks ."
"You were also not made to talk back to your master!" Zim retorted. It was not long before the same hologram from the ship was displayed in the middle of the room, though the quality was monumentally decreased due to the fact it was recorded on a phone. Zim and Skoodge looked at one another as it started to play.
"Can you under-" Dib started to ask but he was immediately hushed by Zim . Both Irkens had their antennae straight up the expressions were serious. The video still had some time left on it but Zim made a motion with his hand and CB cut the feed. "Hey there was still a lot left!" Dib had nearly gotten killed for that footage.
"It was repeating itself. It's automatic." Zim looked to be deep in thought.
"So, you could understand what that alien was saying!" Dib was excited. He had a feeling Zim would be able to unravel what was happening.
"Our PAKs translate everything automatically. You did not honestly think I was speaking English, did you?" He looked vaguely amused. "I'm speaking Irken , what you hear is just translated. It also translates whatever language I hear into Irken ." That made a lot of sense, but Dib was also realize whenever he had decided to insult Zim in Spanish, odds were that the Irken had actually understood every word. From the way Zim met his eyes as the though occurred to him, Dib realized his suspicion was entirely correct. "Even Spanish."
"Long story short: Yes, we understand it." Skoodge didn't seem to understand the sudden air of discomfort and had decided to interject.
" She's sad because she lost her babies !" GIR, shockingly, seemed to have understood the recording as well. " WHY CAN'T SHE FIND HER BABIES!? WHY MASTER!? " He (thankfully) gave up on Dib and ran back to Zim, who simply moved him aside with the PAK legs.
"She is a Syndicate General. The drone was sent to locate a squadron of Syndicate Rangers that crash landed somewhere on this planet. She's unsure if there were survivors, but they were escorting some sort of weapon of unknown origin when the ship went down." Skoodge had finally put down the paper and was looking at where the recording had been displayed.
"She also said that the weapon needs to be recovered and they will turn this planet inside-out in order to find it." Zim added, almost as an after though.
Fucking great. A direct threat to Earth.
"More likely than not, they will just assimilate your planet the way they do with all the others." Skoodge shrugged.
"Assimilate!? That sounds terrible!"
"It really is." Zim was not making him feel any better.
"Is there any way to fight them? You have weapons, right?" He looked to the Irkens. "You guys are Invaders! This is what you do!"
"We're Invaders not ' an actual army '." Skoodge countered. "We could try to steal the Syndicate Capital Planet for the Irken Empire but that would start an actual war and would not help." Skoodge put both his hands together and brought them slowly down in front of him. " So, we won't do that because it is a bad plan."
"Did you destroy the drone on your way in?" Zim looked over to Skoodge. The robust Irken looked offended by the suggestion.
"I saw it circling but I left it alone. It isn't looking for us! I assumed it was just seeing if this planet was worth its time. I'm in hiding , Zim , I'm not going to attack a military vessel for a rival Empire." Skoodge was definitely more adept than his counterpart .
"Well then how did it crash?" Zim's question gave Skoodge pause.
"Did you launch some sort of attack on it?" Skoodge looked to Dib who suddenly found himself on trial. He was about to defend himself when Zim spoke.
"He isn't that smart."
"Yes, I am!" Dib snapped back. "But... no. I didn't know about it until it was already crashing. But just so we are clear, I could have done it if I wanted to."
"Why did two different Syndicate military vessels crash on this planet at two different points in time?" Skoodge ignored Dib's claim about his competence. "The situation seems oddly suspicious. I suppose it isn't really our problem though."
"It is if Earth gets destroyed!" Dib protested.
"CB, run the recording back and calculate how many Earth years ago the initial crash occurred." Zim gave the order as the Syndicate General appeared in the room once again.
" Roughly two Earth years ." CB's reply was almost instantaneous.
"Very good. You've done well my minion."
" I have done basic math ."
"It makes sense, this must have been launched from Capitol Planet and that would be quite a distance from Earth." Skoodge and Zim were both deep in thought. "Though I'm sure they launched more than just this one..."
"What do you think the weapon they were escorting was? Zim would like it."
"Wait! You just spent all this time saying that these are militant and powerful aliens that your own empire doesn't even want to fight- and you want to steal from them?" Dib gave the tiny Irken an incredulous look.
"To be fair, we could fight them, it would just be disadvantageous for the Empire to do it now." Dib glared at him. He wanted to point out that Zim was on the outs with his Empire currently and thus, the Armada would not be bailing him out if he decided to engage in the theft of some mysterious weapon. However, he knew Zim was still quite shaken over the event, so he bit his tongue. Upsetting him would solve nothing. "But I see your logic."
"What we should do, is find the weapon mentioned in the recording." Skoodge looked to Zim for confirmation. "We find it, and make absolutely certain it is on the next drone that arrives. Like I said, more will come if this mission was that important."
"What if they use the weapon to attack Earth!?"
Both Irkens looked at each other , then at Dib, before they burst out laughing.
"They won't." Zim assured him.
"The only way for Earth to be put on the Syndicate's radar-unless your planet makes a bunch of scientific advancements in a very short time- is for their drones to keep getting attacked when they come here." Skoodge added. "I just moved here and having this planet destroyed would be annoying. So, we may want to deal with this whole ordeal as quickly as possible."
Author's Note: Thank you all so much for your feedback on the first chapter of the Syndicate Arc! I hope you enjoy this first adventure as it progresses!
